Damned
by Mr. Sado-Masochism
Summary: A fic all about Joachim; his past and his present.


Damned  
  
"Oh what a wonderful life it is..." Joachim said as he raised pale hands up to the heavens like if he was praising God. "...To be damned in an eternal prison in the black bowels of the omnipotent cascades." He listened to his voice echo in the room reminding him of his loneliness that he showed in his eyes. He finally lowered his head, silver hair draping down, hiding his face as he lowered his arms.  
  
For a while Joachim did nothing and began to feel tired.  
  
"Now I think I shall tell myself the same bedtime story I tell myself every night." He sighed as he sat down on the dirty steps of the stone floor in the dark. "Why I remember the night when I came to this ill-fated turret!" His memories began to replay in his mind, and they were so real they were as vibrant as the sound of the waterfalls nearby. "I came here like all the others have in the past. It reminded me of how all the stories they told you when you were young, about knights who dared everything to save the damsel in distress from a dragon; it made me sick to know that I was living a fairy tale." He crushed a few rocks in his hand. Outside the cold dungeon, Leon put his ear to the door and listened to Joachim's words. "Anyway, it was a night like every night here. The woodlands were dark due to the eternal darkness that was cast long ago. The soil was dead, and the trees were so tall they practically smothered the sky. No matter how high the forest seemed you couldn't miss that crimson moon." He reenacted how he looked up to the sky that night. "Anyhow, I continued deeper into this cursed woods and as I began to grow tired of seeing nothing, I found a small cabin..."  
  
With his sword at his side Joachim approached the cottage, whose windows were bright with light. Joachim suddenly was hit with a warped field of energy, slamming him to a dead halt. "What was that?!" Joachim looked around, confused.  
  
An old man's voice speaks. "Intriguing."  
  
"Who's there?!" Joachim cried out, holding the hilt of his sword.  
  
"Calm down, we don't need anyone to get hurt now." An old man walked into Joachim's sight.  
  
"Do you know who lives in that little house over there?" he asked.  
  
"Why I do." The old man replied. "Now lets go inside; I have much to tell you." He began to head for the wooden porch. Joachim hesitated and then followed him.  
The old man closed the door behind him and walked behind a counter.  
  
"Who are you?" Joachim asked.  
  
"Oh I'm sorry, I forgot to tell you. I am Rinaldo Gandolfi. And you are?"  
  
"I am Joachim Armster. I have come here to-"  
  
"I know why you have come here, and after all you aren't the first to come here, but one of the many."  
  
"I see..." Joachim muttered.  
  
"I am here to help you." Rinaldo said, now looking for something. He picked up something. "Ah! By the way, you'll be needing this in order to destroy the evil that lies in that castle." Rinaldo handed him a whip.  
  
"A whip?" Joachim took it.  
  
"Why, yes." Rinaldo said as he began to organize bottles on the shelves. "If you are in any trouble, I'll be here." Joachim was about to leave when suddenly he asked;  
  
"Why are you helping me? Is there a catch?"  
  
"There is no catch; just my revenge..." Rinaldo grumbled.  
  
Joachim ran up the mount to the castle and stopped before it. Suddenly in front of him the drawbridge dropped down like it he was being welcomed in. With a slight nervousness he walked on the bridge to the entrance, which was open.  
  
Once inside he looked around, and saw the beginning of his adventure; the prelude to the dark abyss. Around the walls stood candle stands that were lit with violet flames.  
  
After wandering around a bit, he found a strange room that was completely placid. It was filled with shallow water, and had a raised floor with an angelic statue behind it. The moonlight gleamed onto his eyes from outside of the window behind the sculpture. Suddenly an orb reflecting all around itself hovered down.  
  
"I am Elisa, the spirit of saving..." The orb said.  
  
"Umm, hello!" He said, bowing his head to it.  
  
"I didn't spend a lot of time with that Elisa, but later on she did me a favor." Joachim smiled.  
  
Joachim then arrived to another odd room built to look like a small stadium. Suddenly in a plume of smoke a giant of golden armor appeared in front of him; the armor began to move by itself. Joachim's eyes widened.  
  
"Black magic!" Joachim cried as he watched it scuffle across the floor.  
  
Joachim continued to watch the creature's actions. It swung its ball and chain at nothing, occasionally. Suddenly the armor spotted Joachim and shuffled towards him. Joachim hesitated in fear, but suddenly he tightened the grip of his hands and thrashed the whip at the armor. It had hit him, but the whip had absolutely no effect on this monster. Joachim quivered in fear as he continually lashed out at the creature with the whip, only to see that the whip still did not affect him as the fiend drew closer. He eventually gave up and ran out of the room, heading back to Rinaldo's.  
  
"You crazy old man, this whip did not work!" Joachim panted as he entered the home.  
  
"Just like all of the others before you." Rinaldo sighed angrily. Joachim growled in his throat.  
  
"Listen to me, I will do things my way for now on!" Joachim yelled, throwing the whip at the ground. He took out his sword and abruptly left the house as he walked up the path to the castle.  
  
"And that was when I marched into my fate..." Joachim said as his head lowered. Leon outside the door, kept quiet, listening ever so carefully.  
  
When Joachim walked into the castle he saw an attractive young man,  
waiting for him at the top of the stairs. Joachim was attracted to his  
ghostly complexion, undulating scarlet tresses, and stunning eyes.  
  
"Who are you?" Joachim looked at him confused as his cheeks reddened.  
  
"I am Walter; master of this castle and beloved of the Night." He replied with his powerful voice. Joachim's facial expressions changed from one of admiration to deep frustration.  
  
"I will kill you and the Night!" Joachim yelled. "For all of the grief and sorrow you have caused!" Walter smiled.  
  
The two locked into battle, it ending in Walter's favor.  
  
"And everything went blank." Joachim said. "All I can remember after that is when I woke up in this dungeon, the marks of the damned on my neck, and Walter, laughing at me with the Ebony stone. When I gained the strength endowed with my new immortal powers and then somehow had I lost a second time, only to be forced to mope my losses here forever." He sighed sadly. "I don't know why I tell myself this story over and over every night; it only angers me so!" He clenched his fist.  
  
Unexpectedly, the door to the dungeon opened, and a pale stranger walked in. He had light cobalt eyes and golden locks, and at his side he held a whip.  
  
"Is anybody there?" Leon peered into the darkness of the room, taking cautious steps.  
  
"...Who are you?" Joachim asked as he got up, walking towards this newcomer. Leon tried to distinguish the body in the dark when suddenly a pair of red eyes greeted him.  
  
Not that much later a battle begun between the two and once again Joachim was losing. And soon the fight was over and Joachim had lost again. Leon had felt bad for the vengeful creature but he knew it was a life-death situation. He watched Joachim's body blow away into death, like sand blowing into the wind.  
  
"I'm falling, and falling further into the darkness..." Joachim said as he felt himself drop into endless obscurity. Suddenly Elisa appeared in front of the falling Joachim and with white magic swirling around her she ascended quickly and disappeared with a flash of blinding radiance.  
  
Joachim opened his eyes.  
  
"I-I'm alive?!" Joachim cried as he stared at his hands. He then saw a portal on the floor and floated towards it slowly. "This... is my chance to destroy you, Walter..." he said, disappearing in a beam of light from standing over the portal.  
  
Joachim arrived in the main room of the castle and headed for Walter's throne room; he had got there with ease! He ignored all of the monsters that were locked in the rooms and drifted by the other ones wandering aimlessly in the hallways. He climbed up the longest stairway as the wind blew his hair back and opened the final door.  
  
"I wasn't expecting you, Joachim Armster!" Walter said with surprise. He got up from his chair and Joachim's final battle began. Joachim fought with everything; his body, mind, heart, and soul, and with a combination of them all he had won. Walter screamed in agony as his body perished. And with a confident spirit he also beat Death who had vanished for now. Joachim smiled as he slowly walked to his thrown. He sat down in the chair, shuffling from side to side so he could be comfortable, and looked all around him; all of this was his! He laughed and laughed, proud that he escaped his watery prison, avenged himself by killing the great Walter, defeated Death itself, and gained an entire castle to reign for all eternity.  
  
Fin. 


End file.
